Combination-tool.



E. OEHRLE.

COMBINATION TOOL APPLICATION FILED 001.17, 1910.

Patented Oct. 17; 1911.

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WITNESSES:

- A TTORNE Y- COLUMBIA PMNDGRAPH C0 WASHINGTON. D. c.

EMANUEL OEI-IRLE, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

COMBINATION-TOOL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1911.

Application filed October 17, 1910. Serial No. 587,488.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL OEHRLE, citizen of the United States of America, residing at Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Combination-Tools, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in a combination tool of general mechanical. use as a lever, plumb, inclinometer, protractor, bevel, depth gage, centering square, etc, as disclosed in Letters Patent of the United States of America, No. 968,679, granted to me on the 30th day of August, 1910; and the object of my improvement is to add to the range of usefulness of the invention covered by said patent the features of a hook-rule, a rule with thumb slide, a slide caliper rule, a scratch gage, and a universal surface gage, having thereon graduationsto indicate the different positions at which the parts may be set. These features with others of minor importance, hereinafter more fully set forth, I attain by the mechanism illustrated by the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the entire tool assembled and applied to gage thesurface of the bottom of a groove which bottom consists of two planes, one inclined and the other horizontal; Fig. 2, is an enlarged side elevation, opposite to that shown in Fig. 1, of the blade, hook and scriber-needle-clamp,

disconnected from the stock and arranged as a slide caliper rule, a portion of the blade-clamp being cut away to disclose the manner of seating and fastening the clamp on the blade; Fig. 3, is a top view or plan .of the hook and scriber clamp seated on a short end portion of the blade in the manner shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4, is an enlarged longitudinal section of an end portion of the blade and through the attached hook on the broken line 2 of Fig. 5; Fig. 5, is a side elevation of an end portion of the blade and a section through the'hook on the broken line 3 of Fig. 4; and Figs. 6 and 7, are top and bottom views respectively of the removable tripod-base to support and carry the stock. In all of which views similar numerals refer to similar parts.

The original combination tool, as described and shown in the patent above referred to, consists principally of the stock 4,

a longitudinally-grooved ruling and measuring blade 5 and an integral graduated quadrantal limb 6 and blade-clamp 7 pivoted on the stock; whereby the longitudinally said clamp and carried by said clamp and is adapted to swing edgewise over an arc of 180 degrees to parallel blade seats on opposite edges of the stock; and the quadrantal limb having the reversely numbered graduations 8 and the stock having the two reading or index marks 9 and 10 spaced ninety degrees apart, the blade may be set at any desired angle within the range of its swing or any angle at which it is set may be read and recorded. To give the tool a more stable footing when it is used as a surface gage, it is supplied with the detachable tripod-base 11. This base consists of a T-shaped body 12 having the upwardly disposed side flanges 13 and 14: to form a seat-groove or channel. At the ends of the bottom of said channel the planed seats 15 and 15 are disposed to receive the face edge of the stock, as shown in Fig. 1 and indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 6. With planed soles faced oppositely from and parallelly with the end seats the feet 16, 16 and 16 are disposed at the projecting ends of the cross-piece and stem of the T, as shown in Fig. 7. The flange 13 has a central raise and an exterior boss 17 perforated and threaded to receive the milled-headed screw 18 to engage the body of the stock within its edge-finishing flange to fasten said base securely thereto.

The thumb-slide and connected scriberneedle-clamp is seated and carried on the blade by a blade-clamp of the same construc tion as that connecting the blade with the oscillating limb and stock of the original tool. It consists of a central cylindrical portion 19 to form and inclose a chamber for the clamping bolt 20. At one side an integral projecting arm is terminated by a head 21 finished with a face 22 disposed at right angles to the blade and flanking beveled sides 23 and 23 extended over onto the blade to facilitate setting and reading the graduations thereon. An integral oppositely disposed arm is terminated by a cylindrical head 24 cross-bored to receive the ordinary scriberneedle-cla1np bolt 25. The whole is slotted through longitudinally of the arms to form a bifurcation to slidably receive and grooved blade is seated slidable endwise in seat the blade as shown. The base of said bifurcation is centrally concaved 30 away from the seated edge of the blade so that there are bearings only at the ends of the arms where they are easily cleaned and the blade always truly seated. The fastening bolt 20 is formed in the usual manner with one side of the inner end cut away to form a hook 31, indicated by broken lines in Fig. 2, to engage the groove of the blade. And as in my original blade-clamp the retaining lug-pin 32 projects at both sides and the casing is double chambered for the ends of the pin so that the bolt may be reversed, that either edge of the blade may be clamped thereby and changed end for end therein. And the coil friction spring 33 is disposed in the annular chamber around the bolt to act against the underside of the nut 34 to retain the blade spring-pressed against its seat when the clamp is loosened to move to a new position on the blade or to slide forth and back thereon. To complete the scriberneedle connection with the head 24, a loose sleeve 26 is disposed on one end of the bolt 25 and the cross perforation 27, through both sleeve and bolt, receives the needle 28. A knurled nut 29 on the opposite end of the bolt serves to fasten and release the needle. lVhen released the needle freely slides endwise or revolves on its own axis in said perforation and will swing with the revolution of the bolt, as indicated by the broken curved line in Fig. 1.

The outer end of the oscillating bladeclamp 7 is extended outwardly from the edge of the blade and finished with a right an gled face 35 and flanking bevels 36 so that it may be accurately set on the blade and used for calipering with either the hook or thumbslide when seated on the same edge of the blade.

The detachable hook comprises a bifurcate body to form the opposed stationary jaws or broad prongs 37 and 38 to receive therebetween and seat the end of the blade, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The integral connecting base of the prongs is eX- tended laterally in alinement with said seat to form a hook 39 at the end of the blade seated therein; and the face 40 of the hook is a straight continuation of said seat. This hook portion is finished with the bevels or chamfers 41 and 41 flanking the sides of said face. The base has an opposite short eX- tension 42 to complete the blade-seat. The base is concaved 43 crosswise of the bottom of the furcation, as shown in Fig. 5; so that the seat bears at two places only on the end of the blade, 44 and 44, one toward each edge of the blade; which bearings are outside of the space between the prongs, where they are in sight and can be easily kept clean.

. The inner face of the prong 38 has the groove 45 opposed to, parallel with and agreeing with the groove 46 of the blade when it is properly seated. The spring rod 47 is disposed along the groove of the prong and has its inner end 48 screw-threaded or otherwise rigidly fastened in the connecting base of the prongs. The groove in the prong is of suflicient depth so that the spring rod, which normally lies close to the bottom of this -groove, stands a small distance away from the bottom of the groove in the seated end of the blade. The opposed grooves and spring-rod are of substantially the same diameter and the rod lies out laterally beyond the face of the prong far enough to loosely engage in the groove of the blade and guide the parts to correct positions when assembling. This prong is left full thickness centrally toward its point and has threaded therethrough the knurled headed thumbscrew 49 to bear against the back of the spring-rod and bend it against the bottom of the groove in the blade. The spring rod is normally straight, hence, when pressed inwardly by the point of the thumb-screw, the free end of the rod is first to engage the bottom of the groove in the blade. Further turning in of the screw bends the rod centrally, as shown in Fig. 4, which shortens the distance between its fastened end in the base of the prongs and its free end pressed against the bottom of the groove of the blade. This tends to draw the blade-end more firmly toward and against the base of the fork and insures an easy, perfect and secure seating together of these separable parts.

Fig. 1 illustrates one of a great number of diflicult operations that may be easily performed with this combination tool. The stock 4 is here shown seated in the tripodbase which stands on the block 50 having the groove with a portion 51 of its bottom horizontal and a part 52 inclined clownwardly therefrom at an angle of 30 degrees. The blade is swung upwardly, to where the index mark 9 indicates 30 degrees on the graduated limb 6, and is then fastened by the clamping-pivot-bolt tail-nut 53. The scriber-needle clamp, for the purpose here employed, may be set at any desired position on either edge of the blade; but the position shown advantageously brings the scriber-needle at about right angles to the blade. The scriber-needle, which will swing to any angle, as indicated by the curved broken line 54, and slide endwise in its clamp to any desired position, has its tracing point brought to the connecting angle of the two planes of the bottom of the groove, as shown. Now by sliding the tripod-base along the top face of the, block the point of the scriber-needle will trace the horizontal bottom. Or, by sliding the scriber-needle-clamp support along the top.

of the blade, or the blade through the fastened oscillatory blade-clamp, the point of the scriber-needle will trace that part of the bottom inclined 30 degrees.

It is obvious that the slide-rule-caliper and the hook-rule features may be used in a limited way Without disturbing the set of the blade in the stock blade-clamp; but further explanation of operation is as follows :-The index end of the oscillating blade clamp in Fig. 1 reads 2 and 9;; recording this, the blade may now be removed from the stock by releasing it from the oscillating blade-clamp; then with the thumb-slide and hook thereon it may be used as a slide caliper rule. The index arm of the thumb-slide in Fig. 1 gives a reading of 2 and a"; a record being made of this and the thumb-slide or scriber-needle-clamp removed, then the blade with the hook only thereon may be used as a hook-rule. F ollowing the record the whole may be accurately reassembled as shown in Fig. 1.

Inasmuch as the blade may be changed end for end, on either edge, both in the stock clamp and the scriber clamp, and registrably set at any point in its length in either, that the blade has a registrable swing of 180 degrees from the face of the stock, that the scriber-needle has an unlimited swing and longitudinal adjustment limited only by its length, and, that the stock is provided with a spirit level 55, it is obvious that this combination tool has an exceedingly large range of application and great scope of usefulness.

I claim:

1. A combination tool, comprising a measuring blade having a centrally disposed longitudinal groove in one side, a rigidly con nected oscillatory scriber needle-clamp and bifurcate blade-clamp adapted to be slidably seated on either edge of said blade and having a reversible hooked clamping bolt adapted to be disposed to engage the groove in said blade from either branch of said furcation and an index edge on said blade-clamp to point the graduations on said blade, a rigidly connected oscillatory limb and bladeclamp to slidably engage and carry said blade and having an index edge to point the graduations thereon, and a faced stock lockably pivoted to said oscillatory limb and blade-clamp and having an index mark to point the graduations on said limb.

2. A combination tool, comprising a longitudinally grooved measuring blade, a bifurcate blade-clamp adapted to be slidably seated on either edge of said blade and having a reversible hooked bolt to engage said groove from either prong of said furcation and an index edge on said clamp to point the graduations on said blade, a scriber-needle-clamp mounted on said blade-clamp, a second like blade-clamp with index edge and a reversible hooked bolt and integrally connected oscillatory quadrantal limb, and a faced stock lockably pivoted to said oscillatory limb and integral blade-clamp and having index marks ninety degrees apart to point the graduations on said limb.

3. A combination tool, comprising a graduated blade having on one side a centrally and longitudinally disposed groove, a scri-V ber-needle-clamp support and integral bifurcate blade-clamp adapted to be slidably seatedon either edge of said blade and said blade-edge shiftable end for end through said bifurcation and an index edge on said clamp to point the graduations on said blade, a reversible hooked bolt in said bladeclamp to engage in said groove, a stock having a face edge and an index mark, a bifurcate blade-clamp and reversible hooked bolt like that carrying the needle-clamp and pivotally mounted on said stock and having an integral graduated limb to pass said index mark, and a footed base adapted to be removably attached to the face of said stock.

4. A combination tool, comprising a rule and measuring blade having a longitudinal groove, a detachable head seated on one end of said blade and having an extension to form a hook disposed at right angles to the edge of said blade and faced reversely to and even with the end of said blade when seated, a bifurcate thumb-slide slidably seated on one edge of said blade and having an index edge disposable oppositely to said hook and set at right angles to the edge of said blade to point the graduations thereon, and a hooked bolt in said thumb-slide to en gage said groove to releasably fasten said slide at any desired position on said blade.

5. A combination tool, comprising a graduated blade having a longitudinal groove at the center of one side, a bifurcate thumbslide adapted to straddle one edge of said blade and having an index edge disposed at right angles to the edge of the blade seated therein and inclined flanking sides to extend said index edge onto the sides of the blade to point the graduations thereon, and a hook bolt disposed centrally in said thumb-slide to engage the groove of said blade to set fast said slide thereon.

6. In a combination tool, an integral blade-clamp and scriber-needle-clamp support, comprising a bifurcate body shaped to form broadly opposed prongs to slidably receive therebetween one edge of a graduated 120 blade having a centrally disposed longitudinal groove on one side, the bottom of said furcation concaved centrally crosswise to divide it into separate end planes to seat the edge of said blade, an arm on said body 125 disposed in alinement with said furcation and having an index terminal to point the graduations on said blade, an oppositely disposed arm adapted to support a scriberneedle-olamp, and a centrally disposed re- 130 in said blade.

versible hook-headed bolt to engage the longitudinal groove when said groove is disposed toward either prong.

7. A combination tool, comprising a 1011- gitudinally grooved graduated blade, a bifurcate head adapted to be removably seated on one end of said blade to form a rule or caliper hook at right angles to one edge of and even with the end of said blade, a bifurcate thumb-slide adapted to be slidingly seated on either edge of said blade and said blade shiftable end for end ineither direction through said bifurcation, a reversible hooked clamping-bolt in said thumb-slide to engage the groove of the seated blade from either prong of said bifurcation, an arm on the thumb-slide having its extended end faced at right angles to the edge of said blade to read the graduations thereon and form with said hook a slide caliper rule, an oppositely disposed arm on said thumbslide, a surface gage needle-clamp mounted on said oppositely disposed arm, a scriberneedle disposed in said clamp, a quadrantal graduated limb and integral blade clamp adapted to receive either edge of said blade slidably and reversible end for end therein, a stock having a face edge and said graduated limb and integral blade-clamp pivoted thereto and index marks ninety degrees apart on said stock to read said graduated limb, and a tripod-base removably fastened on the face edge of said stock.

8. A combination tool, comprising a rule and measuring blade having a centrally disposed longitudinal groove in one side, a detachable head bifurcated to form flatly opposed broad prongs to seat the end of said blade therebetween and a projecting arm at the base of said furcation to form a hook at right angles to the edge of the seated blade, a groove disposed in the inner face of one prong opposite to and agreeing with the groove in the seated blade, a spring-rod rigidly fastened at one end in the base of said furcation and disposed to normally lie closely along the groove in the prong and only part way into the groove in the inserted end of the blade, and a thumb screw threaded through said prong to force said spring rod against the bottom of the groove 9. A combination tool, comprising a measuring blade having a central longitudinal groove in one side, a bifurcate hookhe'ad having broad flatly opposed prongs of less width than the blade to engage centrally the end thereof, the connecting base of the prongs extended in alinement with said furcation both ways from said prongs and one of said extensions continued beyond the edge of said blade to form a right angled hook thereto, said base cross-concaved in the bottom of said furcation to form elevated end seats for said blade toward its opposite edges and outside of said furcation, one of said prongs having on its inner face a groove opposed to the groove in said blade, a spring rod disposed in the groove of said prong and having its inner end rigidly fastened in the connecting base of said prongs, and a knurled-headed screw threaded through said grooved prong to bend said spring rod into the groove in said blade.

10. In a combination tool, a detachable hook-head for the end of a measuring blade, comprising a bifurcate' head having the connecting base of its prongs extended in aline ment with said furcation to form a right angled hook at one end of an edge of said blade when its end is seated in said furcation, a resilient bar having one end rigidly fastened in said connecting base and disposed from thence in said furcation toward the points of said prongs to normally stand away from the inserted blade and against one prong, and a screw threaded through said prong to engage said resilient bar between its fixed and free ends and bend it against the seated blade.

11. In a combination tool, a blade clamp comprising a furcate body having the connecting base of the prongs extended in alinement with said furcation and the bottom of said furcation cross-concaved to form seats outside of said furcation on the extended portions of said connecting base to seat the edge of the inserted blade.

12. In a combination tool, a removable tripod-base to support a faced oblong stock, comprising a T-shaped body, flanges along the edges of the stem and across the head of the T to form a channel, raised planed seats on the bottom at the ends of said channel to seat the face of said stock, a knurled headed screw threaded through one flange to engage said stock to fasten it in said channel, feet at the outer ends of the stem and head, and having planed soles faced oppositely to the seats in said channel and disposed in a plane parallel with said seats.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EMANUEL OEHRLE.

Witnesses:

J. W. MARTIN, M. Gr. MARTIN.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

